Budget bill threatens Mainers' access to food, health care and other necessities, experts warn

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Goranson Farm stand at the Portland, Maine farmers market accepts WIC credits. Aug. 10, 2024. (AnnMarie Hilton/Maine Morning Star)
Kelli Austin is already juggling being in school, taking care of her children, and running a business. Now, the Waterville resident is worried she will have to choose between food and medicine. Or skip medical appointments so her kids can go to the doctor.
'It's not just me and my kids that are affected by this. There are so many kids right now with parents that are struggling, working two jobs already and juggling multiple hats just to just to barely get by,' she said.
Austin, like thousands of Mainers, relies on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, known as SNAP, and Medicaid, which she is scared she will lose because of work requirements in Republicans' budget reconciliation bill that passed the U.S. Senate on Tuesday.
'If this goes through, it's not just numbers on a page,' she said. 'It's gonna be missed appointments, closed clinics and deferred dreams.'
Advocates are warning of the disastrous consequences if the budget reconciliation bill becomes law, including jeopardizing access to food and health care for thousands of low income people.
Interviews with representatives from half a dozen different groups underscored the concern that the effects of the bill will also be felt by middle class families, small businesses and rural hospitals for years to come.
The bill, which Maine's entire congressional delegation voted against, is slated for a final vote in the U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday, though stalled due to some Republican resistance. The Senate version, which Republican Sen. Susan Collins voted against after initially casting a vote to advance the bill, added provisions that made the bill worse, many experts said.
'It is one of the largest transfers of wealth and greatest cuts to health care and food assistance in this country's history,' said Alex Carter, a policy advocate for Maine Equal Justice, a civil legal aid and economic justice organization. 'I don't think it's dramatic or hyperbolic to say that people are going to go hungry. People are going to not be able to meet their basic needs, and people are going to die if this bill passes.'
The bill restricts access to Medicaid, institutes work requirements for food and health care assistance, makes certain reproductive health providers ineligible for federal funding and requires states to cover some SNAP costs, the federal government currently funds. It will also increase premiums for marketplace health insurance. All those cuts are meant to pay for extending tax cuts passed during President Donald Trump's first term that mostly benefit the wealthy, as well as fund a significant increase in immigration enforcement.
Many of the advocates who spoke with Maine Morning Star emphasized these provisions will be particularly challenging for a rural, aging state like Maine, where food insecurity, child hunger and health care infrastructure are already stressed and the state does not have extra funding to make up for federal cuts.
I don't think it's dramatic or hyperbolic to say that people are going to go hungry. People are going to not be able to meet their basic needs, and people are going to die if this bill passes.
– Alex Carter, Maine Equal Justice
'When you look at this bill and what it means for Maine and for Maine people, it effectively means that we're going to lose services,' said Garrett Martin, president and CEO of the Maine Center for Economic Policy.
While much of the bill's opposition has focused on the threats to Medicaid — which an estimated 30,000 Mainers could lose as a result — there are other compounding impacts that target the same groups of people whose health care is at risk, Martin and others explained.
The impacts may not be felt immediately because different provisions in the bill take effect on different timelines (including some as late as 2028), but 'it's going to take two to three years before people really start to understand how significant this legislation is going to impact them and their communities,' Martin said.
The bill will, for the first time, make states like Maine bear some of the cost of SNAP. According to the bill, states with a higher rate of errors, meaning benefits incorrectly issued, will have to bear up to 15% of the costs of the program, which could cost the state up to $60 million in benefits — an unsustainable burden that could effectively dismantle the entire program, according to Anna Korsen, policy and program director at Full Plates, Full Potential, which advocates for state and federal support for child nutrition.
The bill also introduces stringent work reporting requirements that would make nutrition benefits harder to obtain and maintain, particularly for families with children and older adults.
Although the vast majority of the 176,000 Mainers who use SNAP meet the work requirements, Korsen said the administrative challenge of filling out SNAP benefit forms is already daunting for families. Adding the additional work requirement will push people out of the program, she said.
'The problem isn't that people aren't working. The challenge that they're creating is that people are going to get caught up in all of this red tape and paperwork,' she said. ​'So what they're trying to do is just make SNAP harder to get and harder to keep.'
When she was finishing school, Austin was part of Maine's Parents as Scholars financial aid program, which made her eligible for federal assistance. But under the budget bill, she will have to meet work requirements to be eligible for SNAP and Medicaid, which she said is a challenge as a single mom.
'I struggle just to get by as it is, let alone taking me out of the house for that many hours and making me juggle that much more,' she said. 'It's not that we're unwilling to work, it's that we're underserved.'
'I'm not asking for a handout by any right, but I'm asking for a fair shot for myself and my kids,' Austin added.
Calling Medicaid a 'lifeline' for Mainers, health advocates urge Collins to oppose GOP budget bill
The changes would not only impact food security but also harm local economies, with SNAP benefits generating nearly $548 million in annual economic activity in Maine. Small grocery stores could lose up to 20% of their revenue, and local farms could also suffer significant setbacks by losing the revenue that comes from SNAP.
Korsen argued that the bill's provisions create an all-or-nothing scenario for states, forcing them to either pay massive new costs or opt out of the SNAP program entirely.
Indirectly, the legislation also threatens other forms of food assistance, such as free school meals, summer nutrition programs, and WIC benefits, because if a family qualifies for Medicaid or SNAP benefits, they are automatically eligible for free meals. This direct certification allows school districts to be accurately reimbursed by the federal government for providing those meals.
'Schools are scared, families are scared,' Korsen said. 'It's just unbelievable that our government would think that this is okay.'
The proposal also ends the work requirement exemption for homeless people and veterans on SNAP, which means thousands of vulnerable people could go hungry, according to Terence Miller, advocacy director at the Portland-based homeless services organization Preble Street.
That would put even more strain on privately run food banks, which already faced setbacks when the U.S. Department of Agriculture cut programs that allow them to buy from local farms.
'I mean, a veteran who fought for our country and finds themselves unhoused and needing food is no longer eligible to receive SNAP benefits,' he said. 'It's just unfathomable to me to think that those people will not be able to buy their own food.'
In addition to sweeping Medicaid cuts, thousands of Maine residents who rely on marketplace health insurance could see their premiums dramatically increase.
According to an analysis by the Maine Center for Economic Policy, approximately 63,000 Mainers with marketplace coverage will be significantly impacted by the expiration of premium tax credits, Martin said.
For example, a family of four earning around $78,000 annually could see its monthly premiums double from $263 to $476. Even more stark are the potential increases for older residents: a 62-year-old couple earning $85,000 might face a premium jump from $608 to $2,346 per month.
Those premium tax credits have been crucial in making health insurance affordable, Martin explained. About 85% of marketplace participants currently receive these subsidies, which help cap health insurance costs for individuals and families.
The potential elimination of these credits represents more than just a financial burden, Martin added, it could force many Maine residents to choose between maintaining health coverage or cutting other essential expenses.
'At the same time that health coverage is being taken away from low income households and individuals and people with disabilities, we're also seeing a scenario in which arguably middle class families are likely to see a significant increase in costs for themselves as a consequence of this,' Martin said.
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